Twitter publishes targets for a 'more diverse' workforce in 2016

Twitter has outlined its ambitions to boost the proportion of women and underrepresented minorities in its workforce, publishing targets for “a more diverse Twitter” in 2016.

The social network is aiming to increase the percentage of women on its payroll to 35% that year, as well as ensuring that 16% of its tech roles and 25% of its leadership roles are filled by women.

Those targets are global, but in the US specifically, Twitter is also aiming to increase the percentage of its staff who are “underrepresented minorities” to 11% in 2016, with 9% of tech roles and 6% of leadership roles filled by people in this group.

“We want the makeup of our company to reflect the vast range of people who use Twitter. Doing so will help us build a product to better serve people around the world,” wrote the company’s vice president of diversity and inclusion, Janet Van Huysse, in a blog post announcing the goals.

She stressed that Twitter is going beyond company-wide hiring goals for new employees and setting targets for its overall workforce. “We’re holding ourselves accountable to these measurable goals, as should you,” she wrote.